Gizmo, come home! Hunt for a lost dog

Allentown owners of skinny mini-pinscher say pup was snatched by woman on city street

police investigate.

(THE MORNING CALL )

September 01, 2011|By Frank Warner, Of The Morning Call

An Allentown couple are trying to find Gizmo. They say their small dog was stolen Monday evening on a city street.

The miniature pinscher had just wandered off from owner Manuel Mendez at 6:35 p.m. near 10th and Tilghman streets when an unfamiliar woman took the dog and ran off, Mendez said.

Mendez was visiting a friend on New Street when Gizmo strayed. Mendez followed Gizmo down an alley, but the dog disappeared at 10th Street, north of Tilghman. As Mendez walked down the alley toward 10th Street, he spotted a woman he believes took the dog.

"When I saw her, she was coming toward me, and she saw me looking for the dog," he said. "I was saying, 'Gizmo, Gizmo,' and this lady turned and walked away from me. She had something inside her blouse. When I started running after her, she started running.

"I tried to catch her, but I was out of air." Mendez said he has a heart condition.

The woman ran south down 10th Street and then turned east on Tilghman, he said. Mendez gave up the chase and called police.

He also found Leonard Burkhart of 963 Tilghman St., whose porch security camera captured video of the 13-month-old dog passing his house at 6:35 p.m. and, later, a woman walking by in the dog's direction and then running back in the opposite direction.

Mendez believes Burkhart's slightly fuzzy video shows the woman running away with Gizmo in her right arm or under her blouse.

"You can't see the woman's face on the video," he said, "but you can see her body, her clothes. And I think you can see the little dog's face." City police say the video is too grainy to show whether the woman is carrying anything, but they are investigating.

Since Gizmo's disappearance, Mendez and his wife, Dennise Ramirez, who live at 823 N. Halstead St. on the east side, have been searching the streets around 10th and Tilghman, and passing out fliers with pictures of the skinny black dog, which looks like a Chihuahua.

They have put up a $200 reward for Gizmo's return. Signs on utility poles say "Looking for Gizmo" and "Se Busca Gizmo," and give a phone number, 484-550-2234, to call with information.

"We're offering $200, no questions asked," Mendez said. "If they ask for something else, we might try to do it. We just want the dog back."

Mendez said he and his wife have had Gizmo six months, and they enjoy his playful companionship. He said the dog has always seemed to attract attention.

"We went to the Maryland shore a month and a half ago," he said, "and every two or three minutes we had people stopping on the beach to ask about him and take pictures of him."

Gizmo is a friendly dog, Mendez said. "He wouldn't run from strangers."